Watch ‘The Van Halen Story – The Early Years’ Documentary

Today is the anniversary of the release of “The Van Halen Story,” the must-see documentary about the formative years of the best rock and roll band ever.

Narrated by the late J.J. Jackson from MTV fame, the documentary covers Alex and Edward’s early years playing with small garage bands, all the early years with David Lee Roth, and concentrates mostly on the club days and the first world tour. Covers the same timeframe as ‘Van Halen Rising’, the biography by Greg Renoff, this could be thought of as a video companion to that book.

Despite the fact that it’s unofficial (there’s no Van Halen music within), it’s excellent, and about as good as a documentary could possibly be without the band’s involvement. Includes interviews with many band insiders, as follows:

Rare photos were seen for the first time from Mark Stone, Tom Broderick, Gregg Emerson, Eddie Anderson, Norman Seeff (who took lots of amazing shots taken from the Woman and Children First album cover sessions), and more.

No doubt that thousands of our regular visitors have already seen this, but we’re sure thousands haven’t. Either way, we think it’s very entertaining, and worth watching multiple times. And what better time to watch it (again?) than on the anniversary! The video is embedded above.